Telecommunications company Lumen Technologies will now be able to more than double their existing intercity fiber network route miles and enable customers - which include cloud data centers, enterprise businesses, and public agencies - with the bandwidth and connectivity necessary to more easily and effectively unlock the capabilities of generative AI applications.
Lumen is assuring that they will be able to do this by reserving 10% of the global production of Corning’s next-generation Gen AI fiber-optic cabling. This is Lumen’s largest cable purchase to date.
A Significant Deal
For Corning, this is a significant financial deal, as well as the first outside plant deployment of their new Gen AI fiber and cable system, designed to advance the deployment of generative AI solutions.
According to Wendell P. Weeks, Chairman and CEO, Corning Incorporated, the new cable will “enable Lumen fit anywhere two-to-four times the amount of fiber to their existing conduit.”
Lumen currently has multiple fiber routes to more than 50 cities in the U.S. and is focusing efforts on delivering AI to its customers and partners.
Generative AI a Growth Model for Fiber Cabling
Weeks also said during Corning’s first quarter earnings call in early May that despite fiber shipments tracking over 30% below trend, he expects business to pick up.
The deal with Lumen is an excellent example of that business increase, with Weeks following through on his comments made during the call thusly, as relative to the AI market:
“Generative AI is an especially attractive opportunity for us. It creates significant demand for passive optical connectivity solutions and strengthens our value proposition and competitive advantages.
All data centers consist of a front-end network connecting racks of CPUs. To meet AI's computational demands, customers are building a new fiber-rich second network to connect GPUs, which increases our market opportunity.”
The importance of fiber networks to AI deployments is clear, and the new agreement will give Lumen what it needs to upgrade and increase the AI capabilities of their network.
One of Lumen’s defining characteristics as a carrier is how they continuously upgrade their network infrastructure. They do this by using a multi-conduit system that allows rapid deployment of the newest fiber technology.
Corning CEO Weeks added:
“As generative AI increases bandwidth requirements between data centers, we’re pleased to reach an agreement with Lumen Technologies to provide our latest optical fiber and cable innovations to facilitate Lumen’s build of a new network to interconnect AI-enabled data centers.”
Lumen Also Partners with Microsoft
A week prior to the announcement of the purchase agreement with Corning, Lumen announced a new partnership with Microsoft.
In this partnership, Lumen will be using the Microsoft Cloud to further their digital transformation efforts, while Microsoft will be using Lumen’s interconnected fiber network to expand its network capacity to help meet the increased demand for network bandwidth and connectivity at its data centers as driven by concurrent AI demand.
Lumen is considered a strategic supplier for Microsoft’s network infrastructure needs. The company expects its investment in Lumen to support its next generation of applications on the Microsoft platform. These applications will be AI-driven and represent the next generation of application development from Microsoft.
According to Erin Chapple, corporate vice president of Azure Core Product and Design, Microsoft:
"AI is reshaping our daily lives and fundamentally changing how businesses operate. We are focused both on the impact and opportunity for customers relative to AI today, and a generation ahead when it comes to our network infrastructure.
Lumen has the network infrastructure and the digital capabilities needed to help support Azure's mission in creating a reliable and scalable platform that supports the breadth of customer workloads—from general purpose and mission-critical, to cloud-native, high-performance computing, and AI, plus what's on the horizon.
Our work with Lumen is emblematic of our investments in our own cloud infrastructure, which delivers for today and for the long term to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more."
For its part, Lumen said it has embraced Microsoft technologies to facilitate its own digital transformation.
A Strategic Decision
To support efforts like these, Lumen’s investment in the next generation fiber from Corning is clearly a strategic decision.
The Corning purchase will enable Lumen to further expand its Private Connectivity Fabric, the custom network for Lumen customers.
This network has dedicated access to the existing fiber, new fiber installation for existing and new routes, and access to Lumen’s digital services.
It’s also an AI-ready infrastructure, and in Microsoft’s use case, will strengthen connectivity between the Microsoft data centers.
Building for the future is a key component of Lumen’s vision. As Kate Johnson, president and CEO, Lumen Technologies, put it:
"We are preparing for a future where AI is the driving force of innovation and growth, and where a powerful network infrastructure is essential for companies to thrive.”
This video from Data Center World 2024 describes Corning Optical Communications' Centrix System, a frame system with housings and a variety of different modules that enables carriers to have a lot of flexibility in the type of optical circuits they deliver to their customers inside Meet-Me-Room data center space.
